Plea for Advocates facing acute shortage of money due to Covid-19
In the title “Ritesh Tanwar & ORS v. Union of India & ORS” the plea moved to the High Court of Delhi. Moved by various practicing Lawyers of Delhi, the Plea makes Union of India, through Ministry of Finance, GNCTD, Delhi Bar Council, and Reserve Bank of India as respondents.
The Plea seeks Financial Assistance as an interest-free loan to advocates enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi in order to meet their basic needs and survive with dignity and make payments of their Pending EMI’s, School Fees, Credit Card bills, etc in times of Covid.
The plea states the adverse conditions of the Advocates of the Middle Class and Lower Middle-Class families who were adversely affected by the lockdown, and the courts which were closed due to the second wave of Covid. It mentions that this situation has brought drastic financial difficulties in the family of such advocates.
The plea states that due to the expiry of more than 1.5 years and the courts still not in their normal work, caused the advocates a lot, and now there are not in a situation to pay their respective EMI of their Loans i.e. Home, Car, Personal Loans, and Credit Card bills. Some of them are not even in a state to pay their children's School Fees on time, and to which the school is not allowing their children to attend their online classes.
It also mentions that the Delhi bar council had floated a tender dated 10 February 2021 for the Redevelopment of their Head Office at the estimated cost of Rs. 3.5 Crore. At this time when all the advocates are suffering due to the financial crisis, there is no need for redevelopment of Head Office, and that money should be utilized to save the advocate from this financial crisis.
This plea was in the view that it stated to preserve the dignity of Legal Profession, financial assistance in the mode of Interest-Free Loan is required from the Respondents jointly or severally so that they can save, maintain their dignity in front of society at large.